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Sweat Equity and True ROI Tracker
A dashboard that integrates with IDEs, GitHub, and Stripe to measure exactly how many hours go into a project versus the revenue it generates. It helps founders calculate their true hourly rate.
Why this matters
You are juggling a full-time job while trying to launch multiple side projects on nights and weekends. You celebrate when your app makes its first fifty dollars, but you have a nagging suspicion about the underlying math. Traditional time trackers are disconnected from your payment gateway, making it impossible to see the whole picture. When you finally manually tally up the hundreds of hours spent coding, debugging, and marketing, you realize you are working for pennies an hour. You need an automated system that connects your code commits to your bank account so you know exactly which projects deserve your ongoing effort.
- · Built for Indie hackers and side-project builders managing multiple small bets..
- · Most likely monetization: SaaS subscription.
The Pain · Narrative
You are juggling a full-time job while trying to launch multiple side projects on nights and weekends. You celebrate when your app makes its first fifty dollars, but you have a nagging suspicion about the underlying math. Traditional time trackers are disconnected from your payment gateway, making it impossible to see the whole picture. When you finally manually tally up the hundreds of hours spent coding, debugging, and marketing, you realize you are working for pennies an hour. You need an automated system that connects your code commits to your bank account so you know exactly which projects deserve your ongoing effort.
Score Breakdown
Market Signal
Go-to-Market
Serial side-project builders managing 2+ revenue-generating apps concurrently.
~50,000 portfolio makers globally
Product Hunt launch positioning it as the 'ultimate reality check tool'
$9/month
100 active connected accounts syncing both code and revenue data
MVP Scope · 1–2 weeks
- Design the database schema to handle users, projects, time logs, and revenue events
- Build a basic Node/Python backend with OAuth integration for GitHub
- Implement logic to estimate hours worked based on git commit timestamps
- Create a frontend dashboard template displaying project stats
- Deploy the initial shell application to a cloud provider
- Integrate Stripe API to fetch read-only revenue data for linked projects
- Develop the core algorithm that divides trailing revenue by estimated hours to show 'True Hourly Wage'
- Implement a manual time-entry override for non-coding tasks like marketing
- Add a secure user authentication flow
- Invite 10 developer friends to connect their repositories and Stripe accounts for beta testing
Differentiation
Why This Might Fail
Self-rebuttal — the most important trust signal
- 1The target audience of indie makers is notoriously frugal and accustomed to free tools.
- 2The data might be too depressing; seeing a 'true hourly wage' of $0.50 might demotivate users, causing them to churn.
- 3Accurately guessing hours worked strictly from git commit history is technically flawed and often undercounts marketing efforts.
Evidence Summary
How AI synthesized this insight — no verbatim quotes
Discussions revealed a strong interest in understanding the real labor costs behind independent software businesses. Users asked for breakdowns of total hours invested over specific timeframes and noted that current time-tracking methods fail to provide accurate overall assessments. There is a clear curiosity around quantifying the efficiency and financial viability of different technical stacks and business ideas.
Action Plan
Validate this opportunity before writing code
Recommended Next Step
Validate
Promising signals, but needs confirmation. Create a landing page, collect email sign-ups, then decide.
Landing Page Copy Kit
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Headline
Sweat Equity and True ROI Tracker
Sub-headline
A dashboard that integrates with IDEs, GitHub, and Stripe to measure exactly how many hours go into a project versus the revenue it generates. It helps founders calculate their true hourly rate.
Who It's For
For Indie hackers and side-project builders managing multiple small bets.
Feature List
✓ GitHub/GitLab commit time integration ✓ Stripe read-only revenue integration ✓ True hourly wage calculator widget
Where to Validate
Share your landing page in r/HN · indie hacker — that's exactly where these pain points were discovered.
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